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Surprisingly, most of the materials for building
a strip built kayak are readily available
in Ireland. I could not find any closed-cell
foam, and kayak accessories are also hard
to come by ( there are some in the Great
Outdoors, Chatham Street ). But here's
what I bought and the cost . When considering
building a boat, it is easy to be misled
and budget only for the major items, wood,
epoxy etc. Be aware that little items
like staples, tape, gloves, cleaning equipment
etc. can put add considerably to the overall
cost ! |
| Item | Quantity | Length | Cross Section | Source | Cost IR£ |
| Western Red Cedar | 2 logs | 7' | 6" X 4" | Chethams¹ | 80 |
| Pine | 8 planks | 8' | 1/1/2" X 1" | Atlantic | 32 |
| Mahogany | 4 strips | 8' | 1 1/4" X 1/4" | Atlantic | 13 |
| MDF | 1 1/2 sheets | 4' | 3' | Atlantic | 6 |
| Filler | 3 different shades | - | - | Atlantic | 10 |
| Stapler | 1 | - | - | Woodys | 30 |
| Staples | 1400 | 14 mm | - | Woodys | 5 |
| Glue/Tape etc. | - | - | - | Atlantic | 10 |
| Dust Mask | 1 | - | - | Atlantic | 17 |
| Latex gloves | We used 40 pairs | - | - | - | Had |
| Hot Glue Gun | 1 | - | - | Atlantic | 5 |
| Tung Oil 0000 Wire Wool |
1 | - | - | - | 12 |
| Glass Cloth | 32" Wide | - | 300 grm/sq m | Waller and Wickham² | 100 |
| Narrow tape | - | 80' | 1" | Waller and Wickham | 6 |
| Wide tape | - | 45' | 2" | Waller and Wickham | 5 |
| Microfibres | 1 | - | - | Waller and Wickham | 5 |
| Colloidal Silica | 1 | - | - | Waller and Wickham | 5 |
| Epoxy/Hardener | 205 Hardener - B Pack. Price shown is for 2 packs. | - | - | Waller and Wickham | 180 |
| Squeegee | 2 | - | - | Waller and Wickham | 2 |
| Mini Pumps | Pair | - | - | Waller and Wickham | 14 |
| Brushes ( Foam ) | 5 | - | 2" | Waller and Wickham | 7 |
| Saw Blade | 1 x 6 1/2" dia. 12 Teeth | - | - | McQuillans | 20 |
| DIsposable camera | 1 | - | - | Tesco | 4 |
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¹Chethams Chethams supply cedar in the log, the smallest cross-section thay had was 15cm x 10cm and the finish is roughish but not too bad. They have no cutting facilities, but it would be possible to order the timber from them and have it cut up by a sawmill yourself. The very friendly people there allowed my daughter and me to crawl over their cedar bundles until we found two logs which were suitable. However, we did discard a lot of logs in our search for timber with no knots and little or no grain run-out and in the process I forgot one very important thing, colour. I ended up with one dark-brown log which was nice, but the other is a much lighter colour, bordering on pink . In future I will be more careful. We bought shorter lengths as they are easier to handle on the saw and I used scarfs to join the strips I made. Also, they were easy to bring home by car. The wood is very light. |
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²Waller and Wickham I phoned Waller and Wickham and they sent me free their catalogue and price list ( the prices listed do not include VAT ). They very kindly included the West System Technical Manual. These were very useful when planning purchases as these are very expensive items and you don't want to buy too much. However, one surprise. Just because an item appears in their price list do not mean they stock it. For example, they do not stock their listed 207 Hardener ( the only recommended hardener for clear coating ), and they only have 300 gr / sq m ( 8 oz ) cloth. Also, they normally fold the cloth so if you want to be really fastidious you should bring a tube with you ( around 40" in length ) so you can roll the cloth on it and avoid any creases. They readily gave me 10% discount and their service is friendly and efficient. |